In Liangzhou City, Han Qi, Zhao Zi and Liu Ji sat opposite each other, discussing the next battle.

Liu Jidao: "According to the order of the court, 50,000 people in our department will be under Taiwei from now on." After Captain Di took Mingsha, he went to attack Lingzhou, and our army took the mouth of the gorge, went to take Shunzhou, and cleared the periphery of Xingqing Mansion. ”

Han Qi said: "Taiwei has come all the way, and the road is hard. If we don't go to Lingzhou, there will be many risks in attacking Xingqing Mansion, and we don't have to talk about the future war. Hou Ya prepared a wine feast, and he would catch the wind for the captain for a while, and rest for a few days. ”

Liu Jidao: "Taiwei is kind, and I have received it in my heart." However, Liangzhou is too far away from the Zhenrong army, and it is inconvenient to transport materials here. If it is convenient, it is better to respond to the army with the commander. There is a crossing of the Yellow River, and there is a big road leading to the town of Rong Army, which is convenient for everything. ”

Han Qi said to Zhao Zi: "What does the general think? Let's go to reason, is there too few people in Hexi County? ”

Zhao Zi said: "Now that these states have been taken, Juyan doesn't have to keep so many troops." Transferring 10,000 people into Hexi, we just have to go. These states are different from other places in the party, there are not many party members, and the people look forward to the imperial army like Ganlin, and there is nothing to do. ”

Han Qi said: "That's the best. We have a joint army with Captain Liu, 70,000 or 80,000 people, and we can do a great thing. ”

Liu Jidao: "Captain Di led the army to attack Mingsha, intending to build the railway all the way to Mingsha, and then to calm down for a while." The 50,000 people under my command are not hidden, and it will take a while to repair before they can be of great use. ”

Han Qi said: "The Taiwei led the army to the Xishou Supervisor Military Division and Yingli, he is invincible and needs to be repaired, is it a lot of casualties?" ”

Liu Ji shook his head: "Taiwei is too worried." The party is not a strong soldier, people have no will to fight, and there are no casualties in one drum. It's just that now the whole army is chaotic and the generals are not clear, so it must be reorganized. I personally supervised the first two battles, so how can it always be like this? ”

Han Qi didn't know the situation in Liu's army, and said: "It's okay, the captain can train the troops first, and it will take a few days for me to lead the army over." ”

Zhao Zi has been Liu Ji's subordinate since Suizhou, and said: "Since the whole army has been reorganized, the forbidden army has changed its guns, but I heard that the establishment and so on are not smooth. The captain wants to reorganize the army, isn't it because of this? ”

Liu Jidao: "I can't say anything about this matter, let's talk about it later." In short, now that the army is gathered together, it is still afraid that the various departments will have a gap and cause trouble. Once the troops are divided, they are afraid that the military order will not work, which is really annoying. ”

Han Qi said: "Captain, it's not a secret, more than two months have passed since the imperial court decided to mobilize troops. You have traveled all the way from the Zhenrong army to the current station, but it is only hundreds of miles, and the speed of travel is indeed not fast. ”

Liu Ji shook his head and said: "In the past, when I was training in Suizhou, Du Zhongcheng wanted all the military to be uniform, and there were many official positions in the army. At the time, I didn't understand why this was so, and I had a lot of slander in my heart. Later, when he came to Hequ Road, he won consecutive battles. Except for Shou Tanglong and killing Liu Huai, everything went smoothly, and he didn't feel the benefits of doing so. The forbidden army that has been reorganized and trained now is different from the soldiers and horses at that time, and the establishment is only to command, and the above is temporarily arranged. Only then did I know that Zhongcheng's hard work at that time was really infinitely beneficial. Don't talk about the time of war, it is a march in peacetime, whether it is encampment, or distribution of grain and grass, I don't know how many incidents have happened. Fortunately, there is no shortage of generals and officials in the army, wait a few days, I will rectify it, and it can be used. ”

Zhao Zi couldn't help frowning when he heard this: "Listen to the meaning of the captain, the forbidden army after the whole training, except for the change of guns, isn't it the same as before?" ”

Liu Jidao: "I can't say the same, after the training, the generals and officials in the army are still matched." Although Captain Di left most of the people there when he left the Zhenrong army, there were still some in the army. ”

Han Qi was a privy envoy when he was reorganizing the army, so of course he knew about these things. However, in the affairs of the army, Di Qing was mostly in charge at that time, and Han Qi had the final say on the army's plans, not these details. Listening to Liu Qi, I roughly understood in my heart what troubles there were in the army.

With battalions as the basic unit, it has more than doubled the size of the original, basically one or two thousand people per battalion, which is actually much better than before. In general combat, one or two thousand people can cope with it, which is also the approximate number of people stationed in one city and one village on the front line. However, this time 300,000 troops were dispatched, and this kind of establishment was particularly chaotic, crowded together, and there were constant contradictions every day. Moreover, without the coordination and command of the superiors, the various armies were not satisfied, and they did not know how many incidents there were.

Di Qing marched forward with such an army of 300,000 without accidents, which is already rare. It's just that the trouble is that the party lost its field advantage and no longer resisted one by one, but gathered a large army in Lingzhou, resulting in the Song army not having a chance to divide its troops.

Liu Ji was dissatisfied with Di Qing, because of the actual battle situation, and asked the Song army to move forward quickly. However, Di Qing was accustomed to the old system, and he had to have an army of 300,000 under his control to rest assured, which caused many problems. Progress was slow, and the lack of victory was delayed, which caused discontent.

Zhao Zi said: "I wonder what will happen to Captain Di?" I heard that Weizhou has been attacked, and the Lingzhou is no longer barrier-free, I don't know if it will break through? ”

Liu Ji shook his head: "No." Captain Di estimated that the cannons cast by the party in the past few years were all in Lingzhou, and a large army was gathered there, but I was afraid that it would be difficult to attack. However, it is not easy for our army's heavy artillery to be transported to the city, although the Hulu River is wide, there is no avenue, and it is difficult to march. After preparing to capture Mingsha, the whole army was repaired there, and the road of the Zhenrong army out of Huluchuan was repaired. ”

Han Qi said: "I don't know how to fix it?" Hundreds of miles, not easy. ”

Liu Jidao: "At the beginning, I was going to repair the railway, but the imperial court couldn't stand it so slowly, so I changed it to a big lane. As a rough estimate, it will take several months. The roads were repaired, the heavy artillery was transported, and the spring blossomed when I thought about it. ”

Han Qi couldn't help frowning when he heard this: "Spring is blooming? I'm afraid it's a little late. Lingzhou is on the bank of the Yellow River, surrounded by water. When the Yellow River melts ice, there will be no big cars there, and it is not suitable for the movement of large armies, so we have to wait for winter. ”

Liu Jidao: "I heard that Lingzhou City is dangerous, but I don't know what it is. ”

Han Qi said: "Lingzhou is a famous city in ancient times, on the bank of the Yellow River. Its topography is extremely well chosen, when the Yellow River floods, the surrounding swamps are all around, but Lingzhou City is not affected. To get there, there is only one road, more than ten miles away. Now in winter, the Yellow River is frozen, and it is the time to besiege the city. Once missed, it will be extremely difficult to attack, and you will have to wait until next winter to have a chance to attack. ”

Zhao Zi said: "In this way, Captain Di's plan is to wait until next winter to attack Lingzhou?" More than 300,000 troops, on the ground of hundreds of miles around, sat and waited, and the imperial court was naturally dissatisfied. According to me, it's better to march quickly and surround Lingzhou first. ”

Han Qi said: "If there is no heavy artillery, once it is unfavorable to attack Lingzhou, when spring comes, there is no way to take Lingzhou." ”

Hearing this, several people fell silent. It's December, and although the winter in the north is long, it's time to thaw in February. In more than a month, can Di Qing capture Laizhou? If you can't capture Lingzhou, you can only confront the party there. In that case, it would be better to build a railway directly to Mingsha.

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